An effort to repurpose the vacant Fort Lyon Correctional Facility move forward Monday with the House passing a measure that would designate a portion of it as a residential community for the state’s homeless population.

In what turned into to a spirited back-and-forth among lawmakers debating the pros and cons of the bill, members ultimately voted 49-13 for its passage.

Fort Lyon Correctional facility, housed in rural southeastern Colorado, has sat vacant for two years after Gov. John Hickenlooper[3] decided to close it to save money when faced with a more than $1 billion budget shortfall.

House Bill 1261 — sponsored by more than a dozen House Democrats and Republicans — in addition to transforming some of the former correctional facility into a residential community for the homeless, it would provide substance abuse supportive services, medical care and job training.

Rep. Leroy Garcia[4], D-Pueblo, the prime sponsor of the bill, said it will rejuvenate a faltering economy in Arkansas River Valley.

“Fort Lyon is the economic engine for Bent County and surrounding counties in the southern Colorado,” Garcia said. “This would continue to use that resource.”

In 2011, Bent County doled out more than $12,000[5] a month to lobbyists to try to save the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility. According to the bill’s fiscal note, it would cost the state this year about $2.8 million for area like maintenance to the aging facility and utilities. Costs would increase each year after.

“It’s a bit of the tail wagging the dog,” said Levy, who voted against the measure. “So we’re saying that there’s a homeless problem, there’s an unused facility problem … let’s round up homeless people primarily from the Denver metropolitan area and let’s bus them down to Las Animas and voila we’ve solved two problems.”

Levy said she hopes to look at the best ways to serve the chronically homeless and separate it from an under used facility in Bent County.